The expansion draft isn’t necessarily supposed to be a positive event for the 31 teams aside from the Seattle Kraken. After all, every team loses one of its players. In theory, the draft benefits the Kraken and subtracts from their competition.
But the Blackhawks likely envisioned the expansion draft as helping not just the Kraken, but themselves. Chicago has a ton of decisions to make at all positions in the coming weeks, and the assumption was the Kraken would alleviate that by taking one of those players.
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The Blackhawks were going to be OK if the Kraken took defensemen Calvin de Haan or Nikita Zadorov. In fact, they assumed they’d be losing one of those two players. If that occurred, the Blackhawks would be freed either of de Haan’s $4.55 million cap hit or what they were going to potentially pay Zadorov as a restricted free agent. The Blackhawks planned to bring back one of those two players next season, but not both of them.
If the Kraken selected Collin Delia or Malcom Subban at goalie, that wouldn’t be as beneficial, but it would assist in some roster decisions come next season with Delia and Subban both under contract for 2020-21.
If Seattle picked Adam Gaudette, Ryan Carpenter or Brett Connolly among the forwards, the Blackhawks would have been fine with that, as well. The Blackhawks have an abundance of NHL-caliber forwards under contract and not enough roster spots for all of them.
But instead of doing any of that and helping the Blackhawks in some way, the Kraken did something totally unexpected. They selected forward John Quenneville, according to a source.
Quenneville played just nine games with the Blackhawks over the past two seasons, and had just one goal in 16 games for the Rockford IceHogs last season after a solid 2019-20 AHL campaign. He’s a perfectly serviceable depth forward, a classic AHL/NHL tweener, but he wasn’t really in the mix for a spot on the Blackhawks roster next season.
He’s also an unrestricted free agent. So the Kraken choosing him essentially means Ron Francis and Co. looked at what the Blackhawks were offering and said, “Nah, we’re good.”
So what does this mean for the Blackhawks as they try to reshape their roster and move closer to playoff contention? Well, let’s break down where things now stand on defense, at forward and in goal.
Defense
De Haan is a solid defenseman and a well-liked teammate, a valuable player for contenders and rebuilders alike. But the Blackhawks’ best-case scenario might have been the Kraken taking the veteran blueliner, opening up $4.55 million of cap space and another spot in the lineup for a free-agent addition or one of their young defensemen.
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Had Zadorov been taken, it would have absolved the Blackhawks of the difficult decision to either qualify him and re-sign him, qualify him and trade him, or not even qualify him at all and let him walk. The fact that they exposed Zadorov at all indicates the Blackhawks are ready to move on from the imposing but inconsistent defensive defenseman, but historically speaking, the Blackhawks have been very reluctant to simply cut bait and give up on a highly-touted asset like Zadorov. And let’s face it, it doesn’t help that every fan knows all too well the trade tree of Artemi Panarin for Brandon Saad for Zadorov for possibly nothing at all. So the safest bet might be to qualify Zadorov and try to deal his RFA rights.
Now the Blackhawks still have de Haan and potentially Zadorov on the roster, along with Connor Murphy, Adam Boqvist, Riley Stillman, Caleb Jones, Wyatt Kalynuk, Ian Mitchell and Nicolas Beaudin (looks strange to list all the Blackhawks defensemen and not see Duncan Keith, doesn’t it?). And they’re still very much in the market for a top-pairing defenseman, particularly Columbus’ Seth Jones.
If things had played out perfectly, the Blackhawks were tentatively planning to lose de Haan or Zadorov and pursue another top-four defenseman in addition to Seth Jones. Does this change that? Maybe, maybe not. Zadorov isn’t definitively coming back. Of course, Stan Bowman’s mantra over the years has been that you can never have too many defensemen, and players such as Mitchell and Beaudin could certainly benefit from some development time in the AHL. The blue line is far from settled.
Goaltending
There was an outside chance Seattle would take Subban as an inexpensive and reliable No. 2 or No. 3 goalie, but the Blackhawks’ goaltending trio of Kevin Lankinen, Collin Delia and Subban remains intact. Seattle instead reportedly chose Chris Driedger from Florida, Vitek Vanecek from Washington and Joey Daccord from Ottawa.
That doesn’t mean the Blackhawks can’t still go out and add a veteran netminder (we previously reported that Vezina Trophy winner Marc-Andre Fleury’s name has come up) to push Lankinen, or nudge him into more of a 1B role. The UFA goalie market isn’t terribly exciting, but familiar faces Antti Raanta and Carter Hutton are among the possibilities, alongside the likes of Petr Mrazek, James Reimer and Jaroslav Halak.
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Forwards
Adam Gaudette, a restricted free agent, was probably the most attractive player to the Kraken from an analytics standpoint. There are still plenty of people who believe Gaudette can be a consistent offensive player, and Gaudette said he’s found a solution to the stomach ailment that prevented him from putting on weight in recent seasons. The Kraken did have some conversations with upcoming UFA Vinnie Hinostroza, but they didn’t go very far. Brett Connolly and Ryan Carpenter were thought to be possibilities, too, but the Kraken had other plans.
The Blackhawks may still bring back Gaudette and/or Hinostroza, but that hasn’t been decided yet. The team first needed to figure out who’d they lose to Seattle and then they could go about figuring everything else out.
With Jonathan Toews and Alex Nylander expected to return to the lineup, Henrik Borgstrom coming on board and rookie Lukas Reichel potentially good enough to jump right into the NHL, the Blackhawks simply don’t have enough roster spots for everyone.
For better or worse, the Kraken didn’t do anything to clear things up.
(Top photo of John Quenneville: Bill Smith / NHLI via Getty Images)